THIS is not the best times for Nigeria. Presently, the unity of the country is being called to question. The federating units are all crying foul. The reason behind this national discord is  that the rest of Nigeria must not sleep. They have already let loose their foot soldiers. And they are at work. But what could be their grouse?

A peep into Nigeria’s political history reveals that only one reason would anger them, thus ­the loss of their grip on political power and ultimately the loss of their control of the country’s central purse. Since independence, the leaders from this section of the country have virtually been in control of political power (until very recently), riding roughshod and dictating the direction the country must take and at what pace it must move. As long as they controlled the rein of power there was bound to be peace in the land.

This was why the results of June 12, 1993 elections presumed to have been won by the late Chief MKO Abiola, a Southerner, jolted them so badly that they had to quickly annul it. This annulment opened the eyes of the Southern politicians who started demanding equity in the sharing of political offices and the control of proceeds from resources derivable from their areas. To quell this agitation, these powerful leaders quickly convened a Constitutional Conference which recommended the 13 per cent derivation formula. And in 1999, this derivation formula was enshrined into the country’s Constitution. In spite of complaints about the inadequacy of this constitutional provision, the South accepted it in order to give peace a chance.

At the time, this arrangement satisfied and suited our dear Northern leaders. As long as they had what they believed to be their birthright – political power- this new derivation formula did not pose any problems – nobody was marginalised, nobody was impoverished and there was no imbalance in the sharing formula, after all they had the pot from which they dished out this tiny bit.

Alas, today things have changed. In the last decade or so our noble leaders have lost their grip on the seat of power. Suddenly, the 13 per cent derivation formula which they graciously approved is now too much for these oil producing states. It is causing imbalance and it is impoverishing the North. It is apparent that they are afraid that they have been out of power for too long. Therefore, they have to plot a chart on how to get back their strangle hold on Nigeria’s political power, regain their absolute control on the country’s central purse and  renew their oil blocks.

In almost 40 years (out of the 50 years that Nigeria has existed as nation), that they have been in power, why did they not develop the region? Why did they not ensure youth empowerment and creation of wealth in the region? Or are they trying to tell Nigerians that this poverty and non-development “thing” has just happened to the region? Nigerians are not deceived. We are well aware of the fact that these Northern leaders’ hue and cry about underdevelopment and poverty are all theatrics. It has always been a deliberate policy on their part to keep the Northern populace poor and uninformed so they could turn round and hoodwink the youth to believe that Western education is bad (while their children and children’s children attend choice universities abroad). Then at times like this, these uneducated youths are readily put to use to prosecute their dirty political and economic war for them.

In the Vanguard of Wednesday, February 29 in an article titled, “Derivation and deprivation: Why the North is poor”, Ross Alabo-George gave a very instructive and eye-opening analysis of how these few so- called Northern leaders have plundered this nation for almost four decades. During these years, they prospered and built private empires while the region deteriorated. And they cared for nothing. Also worthy of note in the article is the fact that the long list of oil prospecting licenses’ beneficiaries is made of only influential Northern aristocrats from all parts of the region with only one beneficiary from the South-West and none from the South-South.

It is time for well-meaning Nigerians to stand up for this country. We cannot afford to continue to fold our hands and watch these old and greedy politicians plunder this nation to death. The way out of this deadly grip by these self-serving leaders is to halt the operation of this faulty federal structure. If we must operate a federal structure, it must be in the same way it is being operated in other climes where the component units only contribute a small percentage of the proceeds accruable to them from whatever is produced in their respective areas to the centre.

Mrs. EDO ODUEME, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Lagos.